Office Culture

Schizophrenia

Photographed an amazing story about early onset Schizophrenia that ended up on the cover of the Washington Post.  Basically the Behavior Health Services at the PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center are trying to figure out ways to help teens with signs of Schizophrenia way before they ever have a psychotic episode.  The program involves a two-year course of socialization, family therapy, job and school assistance, and sometimes medication.  Now some of this may sound super fancy, but what it actually, literally can turn out to be is taking a kid to the music store and talking to him about his day.  Crazy, right?  The counselor I photographed used his love of music and comic books to connect with his teenage male patients, and as a way to get them out of house and interacting with the world around them.  As someone with a psychology degree, I was pretty blown away by the simplistic brilliance of this.  It made me realize two things. One, that you can never underestimate the power of human connection, and two, that so many of us just aren't getting enough of it. pxpx20140716_schizophrenia_016 20140716_schizophrenia_007 20140716_schizophrenia_044 20140716_schizophrenia_067 20140716_schizophrenia_048 20140716_schizophrenia_064 20140716_schizophrenia_063 20140716_schizophrenia_043

Paternity Leave - New York Times Story

Spent the day with Todd Bedrick and the fam for a New York Times Story about Paternity Leave.  Todd works at Ernst & Young LLP, so got to spend a little time in the 9 to 5 (though no suit and tie- this is Portland, after all).  Then home for some adorable father and daughterness.  Todd and his wife Sarah, who is a teacher, were a pretty picture perfect family; there was dinner, playtime, bath time, then a little purple-polka-dot-story-time and finally bed.  After that he washed his wife's breast pump accouterment and showed me his engagement photo album. What a champ.  In the article Todd mentions how much his time at home with his new baby really helped him bond with her.  Which only makes sense.  Sweden has figured it out.  Close to 90% of Swedish fathers take paternity leave.  Why does it take us so long? The_New_York_Times(2014-11-09)_page77_A 20141103_Paternity_006 20141103_Paternity_012 20141103_Paternity_016 20141103_Paternity_031 20141103_Paternity_039 20141103_Paternity_041 20141103_Paternity_047 20141103_Paternity_052 20141103_Paternity_056

Vamping or "The One where I get under the Covers with a 15-year-old"

Man I love my job.  In what universe is it your job to hang out with a 15-year-old boy in his bedroom at night while he makes beats on his laptop?  Mine. Thank you Owen Lanahan, for letting me invade your haven of teenage mystery.  For whom else but teenagers could come up with the term #Vamping?  And who else but the New York Times would cover it?  Well them and TeenVogue. As Owen so eloquently put it, "“Sometimes I look up and it’s 3 a.m. and I'm watching a video of a giraffe eating a steak,” he said. “And I wonder, ‘How did I get here?’ This my friends, is Vamping. Teens up to all hours of the night on social media.  I remember in college calling it, "Riding the Vampire Express,"  where you would stay up working or partying all night and sleep all day, never seeing the sun.  But Vamping is just so much better.  And just in case you're thinking this blog contains zero informational material, here is a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation.  Look, I just made you smarter.  You are welcome. 20140701_Vamping_023 20140701_Vamping_014 20140701_Vamping_008 20140701_Vamping_010

PORTLAND, OR - JULY 1, 2014: Owen Lanahan, age 15, make beats, watches Youtube video, and texts his friends in the evening in his room.  He says he will stay up until around 2am once or twice a week doing this.  Currently there is a term for this called "vamping" where kids will stay up all night on their computers and social media. CREDIT: Leah Nash for the New York Times